From the Shadows
by Nicodemusshadow
Summary: Harry is in the Department of Mysteries, when he stops to ask Bellatrix a question. Why? The answers given reveal the mind of a tortured woman, and a plot is hatched.


AN: This is the first story I ever wrote. It needs to be said that I don't own Harry Potter or the characters from the series.

Harry stumbled into the room with the veil, with Bellatrix following close behind. His lungs ached as he tried to catch his breath, before turning around and hunched over, tried to determine if anyone else had followed them. He held his breath for a second and decided that they were alone, the sounds of distant booms telling him the battle had moved to a distant part of the Department of Mysteries.

Bellatrix started to cackle, "I've finally got you now boy! My master will be so pleased when I give him both the prophecy and his enemy at the same time."

Harry straightened to a standing position and as he did so his features changed, Harry went from looking like a young, scared boy to an older, darker, more confident looking version of himself.

"Really Bellatrix, I'm pleased to hear that you're still so faithful to your master, and so I'll make you a deal."

Bellatrix froze in position with her wand raised pointed between Harry's eyes. This was not the reaction that she had anticipated. Normally her victims would beg, plead, or in special cases put on a brave face telling her to do her worst. She hadn't ever seen anyone act as if she wasn't even a threat. Bellatrix was several things; broken, psychotic, loyal, but one thing everyone agreed on was that Bellatrix was a powerful and dangerous witch.

"I don't need to make a deal with a half-blood like you," Bellatrix said with a sneer.

Harry continued on speaking with no more emotion than if he were asking a stranger for the time, "Think dear Bella, I have the orb on me," and as he spoke Harry lowered his wand hand and raised his left hand high to show the prophecy. "Now you're fast with a wand, but do you really think your spell can reach me before I toss the prophecy through the veil? On the other hand, "Harry continued, "You could take five minutes and listen to my proposition before making a decision; it's your choice, but make it quickly because we won't be alone forever."

Bella paused at that and tried to think. She could try to silently summon the orb, but she didn't know if the protections put in place to protect the prophecy had been removed when it was lifted from the shelf, not to mention she was still suffering from her time in Azkaban and wasn't sure if she was up to any silent casting. Eventually her mind came to the only conclusion possible.

"Fine, let me hear your 'deal' but speak quickly I don't have patience for a stupid little boy's optimistic ramblings," Bellatrix ground out between gritted teeth.

At this Harry started to chuckle softly, "I don't have any complicated pleas for you to turn to the light I'm afraid, instead I just have three simple questions, if you answer them honestly and completely I'll hand over the prophecy without resistance."

"You expect me to believe that you just want to me answer a question and you'll just give me the prophecy?" Bella asked incredulously.

"Please Bella, I'm not the simple-minded fool Snape makes me out to be, I want you to make an oath on your magic that you'll answer honestly and completely, and in return I'll offer an oath to give you the prophecy," Harry smiled broadly at the confusion on Bellatrix's face.

Bellatrix wasn't sure what to do; this seemed too easy to be true.

"You make your oath first."

"Wise Bella, luckily I have no problem going first. _I Harry James Potter do swear on my magic to freely give Bellatrix Black LeStrange the prophecy in my possession if she first answers my questions both completely and honestly and to a ceasefire while she answers So Mote it Be"_ As he finished his wand by his side let off a flash of light to show his oath was accepted by magic.

Bellatrix knew that even if he had been planning a trap that Harry was now bound to his word and smirked. "_I Bellatrix Black LeStrange do hereby swear on my magic to answer 3 of Harry James Potters questions both honestly and completely and to a temporary truce for the duration of the transaction So Mote it Be,"_ her wand gave off a flash of light and Harry slipped his wand back into his pocket as Bellatrix lowered her wand arm to her side.

"So spit it out what do you want to know?" said Bellatrix.  
>"My first question is simple, why did you originally join Voldemort's forces?"<p>

Bellatrix grimaced, she didn't want to answer but her magic inside of her forced her to open her mouth and begin speaking.

"Originally it was because I was expected to."

Harry raised an eyebrow, this wasn't the answer he had expected, "Explain," he said.

"Look Potter, I know what I've sworn but we simply don't have enough time for me to tell you my life story."

Harry smirked at Bellatrix and slowly started to walk towards her. Startled Bellatrix started to raise her wand hand before it was stopped in mid-movement. She had forgotten her oath not to attack for the duration of their deal. Her mind seemed to freeze as she didn't know what to do.

"Not enough time you say?" Harry said with a smile, "Well then, we'll just have to get some more," as he spoke he pulled out a tiny hourglass on a long chain. "I thought this might come in helpful and so I snagged it on my way through the time-turner room. Honestly how often am I going to have a chance to wander around here unescorted?" He slowly put the chain around his neck and then drew close to Bellatrix and put the chain around her neck letting his hand graze down her cheek as he lowered his arm to the hourglass. "I think a few hours will be sufficient and he turned the hourglass over twice before a spinning sensation enveloped them both and in a flash they were gone. As the spinning sensation drew to a close Bellatrix seemed to come to her senses and pushed Harry away.

"Enjoyed that did we little Potty," said Bellatrix in her high pitched baby voice. "You're lucky you have my oath or you'd be a dead boy no matter what the Dark Lord wants."

"Please Bella, of course I did. You're still a beautiful woman in spite of your time in Azkaban. But more importantly don't treat me like an idiot; you can speak like an adult when you want to and I'd appreciate it if you did so. Now we have all the time in the world so explain what you meant earlier."

Bellatrix was once more thrown through a loop, Potter never seemed to react how she expected, he was soft when she expected hard, confident when she expected fear and kind when she expected hatred. She wondered if this was how others felt around her, when she shifted personas from sharp to babyish never knowing how she would react, before she drew her mind back to the matter at hand.

"Fine Potter, though I never expected a Gryffindor to steal something like a time-turner when they were given an opportunity."

"Well my dear Bella, there was a reason why the sorting hat tried to put me in Slytherin, but we'll get to that later if you ever finish answering my question," murmured Harry with a tiny grin at the corners of him mouth.

Bellatrix stared for a moment before she gave a tiny shake of her head and started talking. "Fine first you need to understand that pureblood families are always focused first towards advancing the family causes and second towards keeping purebloods in power. It wouldn't do to change the status quo even if we are outnumbered by mudbloods ten to one and by muggles a thousand to one. Everything hinges around these two facts. Now the Black family has always done this by studying the dark arts. There is a reason our family name is Black, we know more about the dark arts than any other family in England. Our family library has books of black magic that date back to before the time of Merlin. To strengthen our political fronts we have always married the women off into other dark families. As such we have always been respected as one of the most powerful families in the world. We have always been known as a dark family but the balance between the dark and light sides of magic are constantly shifting and so in each family we always have one "defector" from our cause. Where do you think the term 'black sheep' comes from?

Just to be safe we always have one child from each family, 'repent' and join the light side. That way if we ever were attacked so badly that the 'dark' members of our family were wiped out the family name would continue on. In my family my sister Andi was chosen, in your godfather's family he was the one chosen. There is a dark version of the obliviate spell known only to the Black family, instead of erasing the memory, it erases the emotions remembered. The head of house always used this spell on the chosen sheep to make them think that they hated the Black family's beliefs and wanted to escape. The spell also planted a hidden trigger that if the head of house was ever killed without first passing on his title to a new heir it would remove the spells effects and allow the sheep to regain his memories and loyalty to the Black family and restore the Black name. Do you honestly think that your 'light minded' godfather was left the default heir of the Black family on accident? The Black family always has back up precautions. Unless you're a 'black sheep' your responsibility as a Black is to strengthen the Black's reputation as a dark family and that's what I did. My sister Narcissa married into the Malfoy family for their wealth, and I married into a grey family to strengthen the family cause.

We have always supported Dark Lords when they've risen, and have even raised a few ourselves. It was ultimately decided that it is better for the family to maintain a lower profile when the last time we had a Dark Lord come from the Black family the entire family was almost wiped out. When the Dark Lord first appeared he was exactly the kind of person we expected and wanted. He was handsome, well spoken, and argued that the mudbloods and muggles needed to learn their place in the world. My sister had already joined with her husband Malfoy and I convinced my husband to join the cause as well. Ultimately I joined the Dark Lord because that is what was expected of me as a Black."

Bellatrix was furious with herself; her magic had compelled her to spill family secrets that had been maintained for generations. Harry in the meantime discovered that it was his turn to be shocked. There truly were circles within circles when it came to pureblood politics. Thinking on the fly he decided to change the questions he wanted to ask.

"If this is true then why hasn't Sirius returned back to the Black supporter now that he is the head of house?" asked Harry.

Bellatrix frowned as she thought about it, her magic started to clear her mind and reconnected synapses that had been destroyed by the dementors in Azkaban so she could comply with her oath and answer the question completely.

"I'm not sure," she said. "I think that Dumbledore must have done something to interfere with the Black family magic so he could keep Sirius as his supporter," she finally answered.

Harry stopped to think, it made more sense than Bellatrix knew, the headquarters of the Order was in Sirius's house, and Sirius was trapped because he couldn't leave. Dumbledore even had the Weasley's, his largest supporters, living at the house where they could keep an eye on Sirius.

Harry scowled as he thought even more about the situation, it explained a lot. It just went on to support the ideas he'd had since he'd entered the world. He stopped to ponder what his third question would be since he had to change his plans after hearing the answers to his first question.

All of a sudden he heard footsteps drawing near. Reacting quickly he rushed towards Bellatrix while pulling his invisibility cloak out of his pocket and pulling them both into a corner of the room he covered them both and waited as he saw himself enter the room quickly followed by the rest of the group who had accompanied him to the ministry of magic. He watched the group examine the archway before they hurried on, leaving the room once more in silence.

Harry paused as he realized that he was holding Bellatrix around her waist from behind her while his other hand covered her mouth. He quickly backed away cursing his hormones when his body realized the position it was in and started to react. Unfortunately he didn't back away quick enough and Bellatrix felt his hardness press against her backside before he withdrew. Harry backed away quickly and whipping the cloak off of the both of them apologized saying, "Sorry I'm afraid that there isn't as much space under the cloak as there used to be when I was eleven." Harry watched as a flicker of what seemed to be amusement flashed across Bellatrix's face before it fell back into its usual scowl of anger.

"Hurry and ask your third question Potter we don't have to much more time," said Bellatrix.

"Okay," said Harry thinking quickly. "You said that you joined the Dark Lord because it was expected of you, but why did you stay faithful to him, why are you still a Death Eater now?"

Bellatrix cursed as once again her magic quickened her mind and forced her to draw conclusions and reflect on her life in a way she hadn't considered before. More time passed as she considered her answer to the question and finally she realized that, like it is for most people, it was easier to just pick a path and stick to it than for her to look back and honestly reflect on if it was the right decision.

Originally she had become a Death Eater because Lord Voldemort had seemed like the perfect Dark Lord. He espoused all of the correct ideals, and seemed to want to control the muggleborn problem. But then, she thought, Voldemort had changed. Sure, Dark Lord's are supposed to venture into the dark arts, but maybe Voldemort had gone too far. It had started out small, he cursed people who failed his orders and acceptable if frowned upon Dark Lord activity. But soon he started using the cruciatus curse just because he enjoyed it. The magic coursed through her brain and restored memories she had long suppressed. Memories of happy times growing up in her family, playing with her sisters.

Before Voldemort, the dark and light sided families had enjoyed a time of peace. There were still battles, but instead of fighting with spells, the two sides fought with words and laws in the Wizengamot. Before Voldemort the purebloods were united as a group, but divided by their beliefs in the power of magic and how the pureblood cause should be advanced. Typically dark wizards came from Slytherin and light wizards came from Gryffindor, and the battle was fought over the minds of the people who were sorted into the other two houses.

Just because the Black family practiced dark magic didn't mean that they were twisted evil people, even the darkest of hearts still holds love for their family. Voldemort changed all that, he removed the civility from the battle and turned it into a war of bloodshed. And he had done it a little at a time leading the families who supported him along the path until they felt it was both right and just to kill other pureblood families who couldn't see the necessity of what they were doing.

Worst of all Voldemort had taken her innate need to support the pureblood cause and twisted her loyalties from the Black family until she placed his needs first. She remembered it all came to a head when she tortured a childhood friend, Alice Longbottom, into insanity when she refused to help Bellatrix find her Lord. Finally the magic focused her attention on her time in the Azkaban.

The dementors had forced her to relive her worst memories, the memories of her time serving the Dark Lord and the tortures she felt had felt at his hand. But worse than this were the times she was forced to remember to look of betrayal that she had seen in Alice's eyes when Bellatrix held her under the cruciatus curse. Constant exposure to the memories had made it so that she started to long for the memories of serving Voldemort just so she could have a reprieve from the memory of Alice's eyes. She was forced to watch memories of herself torturing muggles, mudbloods and it always came back to her memory of Alice. Everyone she tortured seemed to have Alice's eyes. Eventually her mind started to twist her perception until she saw Voldemort as her savior from the bad memories and she became even more devoted to him. She watched the memory of when Voldemort had broken her out of Azkaban and she remembered the relief she felt. His rescue of her from Azkaban had cemented his role as a savior in her eyes whereas she started out loyal to the cause he espoused; she now was completely loyal to the man. She would do anything her rescuer needed because he was her savior.

Unfortunately all of this reflection and self-enlightenment was too much for Bellatrix to handle all at once and she collapsed to her knees and started to shiver and twitch. All of a sudden Harry heard footsteps approaching at a run and he cursed as he once more ran forward and covered the two of them with his cloak of invisibility. He didn't know what was happening, he had asked his final question and watched as a light seemed to come from Bellatrix's eyes before she stood perfectly still for minutes until the light dimmed and she seemed to come to her senses only to go into shock. Harry easily recognized the symptoms thanks to all of his time spent with the Dursleys and after whichever life-threatening situation he seemed to find himself at the end of every year.

Luckily Harry and Bellatrix hadn't moved far from the corner where they had hidden the first time, so they were out of the way as they watched Harry run into the room followed by Bellatrix. Harry remembered what had happened at the end of his third year and so before Bellatrix entered the room, he lowered the cloak and winked at himself while pointing at Bellatrix before covering both himself and the shivering Bellatrix back up with his cloak. He pulled her close under his arm while they watched the other Harry and Bellatrix confront each other and make their oaths before they used the time-turner and disappeared with a pop. As Harry held Bellatrix her shivers started to slow and by the time the originals had disappeared she had almost calmed down completely.

Harry once again pulled away this time without any embarrassing situations coming up from holding what he admitted to be an attractive lady, because he had been more worried for Bellatrix and what he had seen reflected in her eyes. By the end she seemed hopeless, as if her life had lost its last anchor and her mind was on the verge of destroying itself with guilt.

Harry once again made a quick decision and led her to an office located off a door connected to the time-turner room. He once more threw the chain over the two of them and once again turned the time turner twice saying, "I guess I misspoke when I said a couple of hours should be enough."

And with a pop they disappeared.

Bellatrix's mind wasn't still while all of this was going on, inside of her head she was spinning but her magic was adding more and more pressure compelling her to give a complete and honest answer to the question.

When they reappeared back into the office she started to speak. "You asked me why I stayed faithful to Voldemort and the answer is because I was led to it." She went on to explain all of the insights that she had seen and been forced to remember.

Harry listened and after she finished speaking he sat in silence reflecting on what she had said. Eventually he started to feel his magic compelling him to give her the orb and so he quickly said, "our deal is almost complete but after it is done I would like to talk for a little more, will you give me a chance to talk before we start fighting again?"

Bellatrix seemed to be broken by everything she had been forced to relive and the realizations that the magic had forced upon her to make her answer the questions 'completely and honestly.' She silently nodded and stuck out her hand to take the prophecy.

Harry smiled at Bellatrix and said, "I promised to give you the prophecy not the orb, so listen closely." And with that he threw the orb at the ground shattering it.

The floating figure of Trelawney rose up and recited the prophecy saying,

_"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches ... _

_born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies ... _

_and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not ... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives ... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies ..." _

—Prophecy made to Albus Dumbledore by Sybill Trelawney

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Bellatrix seemed to come back to herself and said, "That was most Slytherin of you Potter."

"Thanks," Harry responded, "and I guess that is where I'll start, we have a little over an hour and a half until we catch back up to time and stop the risk of running into ourselves. I'd like to ask that you give me this time to talk."

Bellatrix looked at him in consideration and decided to see what he said. If the prophecy was correct, then Harry was the only one who could defeat the Dark Lord and she wasn't sure how she felt about that. She decided to listen to him and then decide what she would do. As she reached her conclusion she looked up at Harry and nodded.

"Thanks," said Harry. "Now I'm sure that as one of Voldemort's inner circle you know of his true origins?" Bellatrix looked at Harry in confusion and Harry sighed, "I guess not," he said. Well I guess that the most important thing you need to know is that he was the son of a witch who descended from Slytherin but had a muggle father. His mom died during childbirth and the father didn't want anything to do with the baby after the love potion she had been feeding him wore off. His father returned home to his life of privilege and Lord Voldemort, then named Tom Marvolo Riddle," at this moment Harry spelled 'I am Lord Voldemort' in flame letters and had them shift back into 'Tom Marvolo Riddle', "was sent to live in a muggle orphanage."

At the beginning Bellatrix seemed as if she was going to interrupt, but once Harry did his flame letters trick, she fell back in silence. "Tom was small, and unfortunately in an orphanage that means that he was bullied. That is, until he discovered his accidental magic. He discovered that he could punish those who had hurt them, and from there it was a small step toward controlling them through their fear of his powers."

At this Bellatrix couldn't hold back and asked, "How would you know any of this Potter?"

Harry smiled and said, "I'll explain a little more later, but the short answer for now is that I had unguarded access to Dumbledore's pensieve last year when I was left alone in his office and looked at more than he knows." At this Bellatrix's eyes widened a bit and she sat back once more in contemplation of what she was hearing. Harry continued, "I'm sure you've heard rumors about me from Lucius's boy Draco, but the truth is I'm no more Dumbledore's man than you are." Harry smirked at Bellatrix's confusion before continuing on, "I guess I'll go back to the beginning. Regardless of what Snape may have told you, I didn't grow up a pampered prince before Hogwarts. Instead my life was even worse than Voldemort's childhood." Harry then went on to explain about his cupboard under the stairs, the frequent beatings to 'beat his freakiness out' and they joys of 'Harry Hunting'.

"And then like a miracle all of it was stopped when I got my letter to Hogwarts, I didn't care that I was a wizard or that I had magic. All I cared about was that I was escaping the Dursleys," Harry explained. "That changed once I first entered the Leaky Cauldron and was mobbed by the crowd. All of a sudden I went from being the freak banished to live under a stairway to some kind of hero for something I didn't remember. I decided that if I wanted to be allowed to stay in the new world, then I better act like they expected. And with that I entered my first year of Hogwarts.

When the sorting hat told me I would do well in Slytherin I convinced it that I shouldn't go there and it instead sent me to Gryffindor where 'a hero should be.' My decision in the Leaky Caldron also led for me to reject Draco's offer of friendship because 'that's not who a hero would be friends with.' The year ended on a sour note when I met Voldemort who was living in the back of Quirrell's head.

He told me that I could join him, but honestly why would I join him when he was a specter and I was already happy. It ended with me defeating him and ending up in the hospital wing where my world was shattered. Dumbledore explained how he 'knew' I would live a horrible life with the Dursleys but sent me anyway.

Before I could even decide how to react, the term ended and I was sent BACK to my own personalized Azkaban. Only instead of reliving bad memories, I was given the joy of experiencing new ones. The summer reached its lowest point when I was locked into a bedroom with bars on the window and a catflap where I was given food. I was left alone and with that time alone I began to think. Yes a house-elf had kept me from receiving my mail, but why didn't my 'friends' come to me when I didn't respond? I had told Ron on the trainride to Hogwarts how bad my life had been, so why didn't he come? I thought about it for days before I decided that I didn't have any true friends at Hogwarts. As I started to starve from poor food, I realized that my only true friend in the world was my owl Hedwig. I also blamed Dumbledore for exiling me to this hell. Why would 'the greatest wizard of the time' think I should be sent here? I wondered. Eventually Ron and his brothers came to rescue me from the Dursleys but the damage was done. I knew that I could only truly depend on myself.

Later that year I discovered how fickle the wizarding world could be when I was accused of being Slytherin's heir and all of my school mates began to fear me. I decided that if they wanted a Dark Lord they would get one, I started spending my nights in the restricted section of the library studying the dark arts. I discovered the beauty and good that some of the 'dark' spells could do and realized that anything could be done through either the dark arts or normal 'white' magic. I realized that they were just two sides of the same coin and that the wizarding world was handicapping itself by restricting itself to only part of its magical heritage.

I kept my nighttime wanderings a secret because it wouldn't do for me to get blamed for the attacks because I was caught studying dark magic. I also had some trust left in me for Hermione and Ron, and as the sting of my summer faded I started to get closer to them again."

Harry paused in his story and asked Bellatrix, "which is more Slytherin or even 'Dark Lord like' acting like a hero and getting the support of everyone while working towards your true goals, or loudly and boldly claiming your superiority while belittling everyone around you?" Harry smiled at Bellatrix and said, "While Draco seems to think it is the later, I have decided to follow the first. Which is why when I entered the chamber of secrets and met with Tom Riddle I wasn't surprised to find out that the diary containing Tom Riddle's memory was really the childhood diary of Voldemort. Tom explained all about his heritage to me and how he had risen to power. He even commented that we had similar childhoods. A fact he had learned from Ginny, Ron's little sister. I once again rejected Riddle's offer of recruitment, if only a little more reluctantly than before and with that came Dumbledore's phoenix Fawkes who gave me the tools to kill both the Basilisk and the Diary.

When I returned from the chamber I met Dumbledore and wondered where he was that his phoenix could come, but he was busy sitting in an office. I reported my victory but didn't tell Dumbledore everything I had learned from Tom. Most importantly of all I didn't tell him about the hidden library Tom showed me in the Chamber of Secrets before I rejected his offer. Instead I planned to make that my secret dark magic learning center. I spent the rest of the year hiding in the chamber preparing it for my return in my third year.

Once again I was sent to my hell, but this time thanks to the dark arts I had an answer. I used wandless magic to show the Dursleys that I could now get away with magic and threatened to do it in public unless they gave into my demands. I had a great summer until my Aunt Marge came to town. Because she didn't know about magic I obliviated my family of the summer and let them bully me into acting normal while she was there. Unfortunately I lost my temper and blew her up with a strong enough spell to set off the magic detectors in the ministry. I decided to take off only to be corralled by Fudge when I got off the knight bus. He forgave me my 'accidental' magic and I enjoyed the rest of my summer as the hero in Diagon Alley.

Third year I learned about dementors and the truth behind Sirius Black's innocence. I was able to keep my dark studies a secret, practicing in the Chamber at night. Thanks to a few dark rituals I performed early my third year I only need an hour of sleep a night. When I went on my time-turner adventure with Hermione I had to use a dark version of the patronus which used a combination of unhappy thoughts wrapped in a happy thought to drive away 100 dementors. The darkness drew the dementors in where they were hit by the unexpected shell of the happy patronus. Luckily Hermione thought it was just a powerful patronus and my secret was safe.

By the end of my third year I advanced in my other areas of magic to where I could have passed my NEWTs if I wanted. I decided to keep my level of learning a secret so questions weren't asked about how I had learned so quickly.

One night I borrowed Hermione's time-turner while she slept in order to give myself another hand on a ritual that needed two people to accomplish it. I discovered the world didn't end as long as both versions of a person knew about the existence of the time turner. I took advantage of this new knowledge and that night I kept using the time turner until by the end there were over a hundred versions of myself running around doing different rituals that required multiple people to accomplish them. At any given time in that 8 hour period there were always ninety versions of myself working while the other ten were sleeping the needed hour to continue going back in time and working. I also found that because I was doing every aspect of the ritual, I didn't need to worry about syncing my magic with the other members of the ritual because they all synced. Unfortunately when I tried to use the time turner a hundred and first time it developed a hairline crack and I hurried to return it to Hermione before she noticed it missing.

That morning I followed Hermione under my cloak to make sure she wasn't punished too harshly for breaking the time-turner and using my map realized that she was heading towards an unused corridor where Dumbledore was waiting.

I suspect that Dumbledore can see through my cloak and so I waited around the corner and listened to what was said from both beneath my cloak and behind a wall. Luckily one of the rituals I had done the night before enhanced my senses and so I was able to hear what was said with ease." At this Harry paused and said, "Up to this point I have only told you what happened, now that you know about my dark side I can show you the results of one of my rituals and actually show you my memory like a human pensieve." Harry reached up and grabbed Bellatrix by the temples and she was pulled into his memory.

Harry listened as Hermione demanded a new time turner saying, "I've done everything you've asked, I haven't missed a single report on Harry, I gave up valuable time to tutor his dumb ass and have pretended to be his friend for three years now. You owe me a new time-turner." At this Harry was angered, the last person who he actually viewed as a friend turned out to be nothing but a spy hired by Dumbledore. Harry broke out into a grin when he heard Dumbles answer, "I'm sorry Ms. Granger but you have obviously been overusing and abusing the time-turner I already gave you. It would never have broken if you had used it within the limitations I gave you. Unfortunately I can't get you another so you'll just have to drop enough classes to have a normal schedule." At this Hermione semmed like she was going to explode, Dumbledore held up a hand and said, "but if you continue to be Harry's friend and keep him on the right path I'll make sure that you become both Prefect and Headgirl and I will personally take you as an apprentice in your sixth year." With this Hermione hurried away passing by Harry, while Harry sat in shock. All of a sudden he heard another voice speak from the corridor, "well if you're going to give her that then I want another thousand galleons a month, and to be both quidditch captain and prefect and headboy to continue being Harry's friend."

Dumbledore sighed before answering, "as long as you continue to distract Harry from his studies and make sure he's loyal to me I'll have the Goblins add the extra money to your monthly deposits from Harry's family vault, now hurry back I don't want him wondering where you both are" At that Ron came around the corner and hurried away. Harry listened as Dumbledore spoke out loud "I have to make sure he is controlled, it's for the greater good." Harry hurried over to a suit of armor and hid behind it and his invisibilty cloak when Dumbledore came out and started walking towards the great hall.

Harry pulled back as he let go of Bellatrix's head, he decided that she probably couldn't handle watching any more memories and looking at his watch he noticed he only had a few minutes left and so he quickly summed up his story, "I was enraged when I found out Dumbles was not only paying people to be spies and 'guide me' but that he was stealing from me to do so. I decided to not do anything until I learned if anyone was truly trying to be my friend. I realized that Dumbledore for some reason wanted me ignorant so he had Ron distract me, but he needed me to pass, so he had Hermione make sure I made it through classes. He wanted me smart enough to pass but too dumb to protect myself. Fortunately as I had already stated I was learning on my own at nights, and I wasn't restricting myself to 'light magic.'

Eventually I discovered how Voldemort survived death, he made Horcruxes splitting his soul into pieces and placing them into objects. One night as I practiced occlumancy I discovered that I myself was a Horcrux. I found an area of my brain that I couldn't access, and as I broke through I discovered a repository of all of the rituals that Voldemort had done and all of the research he had done into Horcruxes.

I decided that I need to be seen as a hero by the public, but that I would become the next dark lord in secret. The only way to do so is to break away from Dumbledor's manipulations and collect my own followers.

My fourth year I was put into the tri-wizard cup as a fourth contestant. Even though the name should have made it obvious to everyone that there was something wrong, everyone seemed to think that I had placed my name in the cup. I'm sure I could have," said Harry, "But I had already decided that I wanted to use the opportunity to get to know new people and start to recruit followers from the other schools. The attention I would gain from being a contestant would be detrimental to my plans.

Unfortunately I was put in the spotlight anyways and had to edit my plans, on the other hand Ron had a labor dispute with Dumbles when he saw my name pulled from the Goblet he grew jealous and quit his job of being my 'friend.' It was like a vacation to be away from the jealous fool. It was also extremely amusing to see Hermione trying to lessen her work load and study but having to help me as a 'friend.'

Even though I could have handled the dragon on my own, I wouldn't have been able to explain my 'newfound' powers. So decided to keep playing dumb, so both Dumbles and Hermione would continue underestimating me. I thought Moody was another one of Dumbles pawns and that my entry into the Tri-wizard cup was part of his plan for the 'greater good.' So when Moody told me about summoning charms, I decided I would just play Dumbledores' game and follow his directions.

For the second task I solved the puzzle the first night, but thought that Dumbles would once again 'guide' me to an answer so I played dumb. Eventually I decided to just forfeit the task when it seemed like no 'help' was coming. Right before the task Dobby the house-elf gave me gillyweed and told me to save Ron. I was tempted to leave him down there but then saw an opportunity to recruit my first follower when I saw Fleur attacked by Grindylows.

I allowed her to be attacked and then saved her sister in an 'act of nobility.' It had the benefit of putting me in the lead of the stupid competition and also netted me my first friends in France. After I explained that under me Fleur would help the Veela nation gain rights that had been taken by the Ministry she was more than happy to join my underground war."

Harry stood up and looking at Bellatrix said, "Now my dear Bella, the time has come. I'm going to give you a chance to join me. I have a dream, I want to reunite the purebloods against their common foe the muggles of the world. I can do this best by keeping my dark side a secret from the light and convincing the world that I'm a hero. Only the truly dark families like the Blacks will know the truth of the matter.

I want you to think about which type of Dark Lord you want to follow. Do you want to follow a Dark Lord who scares the muggleborn into their pen? Or do you want to join a Dark Lord who convinces them to place the shackles themselves and have them thank him for it?" Harry waited patiently looking into Bellatrix's eyes and he saw when she made her decision. "She smiled and said, "I've decided, if I'm going to follow a half-blood it might as well be the one with the better plan." With that she held out her hand and Harry pulled her to her feet.

Harry smiled as he pulled Bellatrix close, he said, "Bella, I knew that if I could convince you I would win this war. The thing that makes you more valuable than any other follower I will ever have is that I know you're loyalty will be eternal."

With that they used the time turner once more to plan. Harry would chase her to the Atrium where her former Dark Lord was waiting. She would be Harry's spy in this war and when the time came she would kill Nagini. Harry planned to destroy the horcruxes but first he needed to repair his image with the wizarding world. He knew that Voldemort would most likely be revealed this night, but he needed people to see him as the head of the light side, not Dumbledore. He also needed to clear Sirius's name and figure out why the Black family magic hadn't reclaimed him.

At the end of their planning session Harry leaned in and pulled Bellatrix into a kiss, "When this war is over, I'll claim that you approached me tonight repentant and became a spy much like Dumbles did for Snape. And then I'll claim you as my own, you shall become my Dark Lady, Fleur will be my emissary to the magical creatures, and Luna will be the Lady the world see as my beacon of Light."

And with that Harry Potter and his newest follow set out to fix the wizarding world, like a sane Dark Lord would, from the shadows.


End file.
